Looking for some advice on horsepower/performance upgrades, thought this will be the best place to look. Any advice would help. Everything on the car seems to be stock from what I can tell.

 

Seriously? 10,562 threads on how to get more power out of my mid 70's C3.
lose the entire exhaust system.
Long tube headers, good true dual exhaust. Some inexpensive aluminium heads. Crane 268 cam. Decent intake manifold.
Yada yada.
please look at some of the 10 thousand plus threads on the exact same topic.

 

First do a performance tune to your car and tune your timing for optimum performance. Look for Lars papers on setting our engine up for all in timing at 3000 rpm. It will make you happier than you are now.


For a build its pretty easy if you arent in a state that requires you to keep the smog stuff like California does.....the basics are

1. increase flow into the cylinders at the optimum for your HP level
2. increase combustion
3. increase the exhaust size to get those gases out of your engine

the Basics

how much you want to spend to go about this process will determine how you do it. In the interest of not having my car down for the summer I Most likely would find another engine block, have it machined for new pistons that have a 10:1 compression, if you have 93 octane go to 11:1, get a GM forged crank, forged rods and have it all balanced. Buy a new .500 lift cam and 1.6 rockers and assemble it all. If you can afford a hydraulic roller cam with $1000 dollar bushed lifters then go that route. Buying cheap lifters is a recipe for disaster.

then pull your motor, take off the intake and pan and install it on the new engine and go from there. IF you have more in your budget find a low profile intake that works with your carb and use that with a low profile drop base air cleaner. Throw on headers and 2.5 - 3 inch dual exhaust and you are on your way

There is a lot of performance tuning to do as well

 

Umm... Then he would get lectured for replying to an old thread though...
The admin of this thread want new threads and you can only have so many "new" conversation topics about 40+ year old cars..

OP I have no idea of your goals and budget but if this is a street car and you only want more pep for takeoffs from stoplights and such you can build strong engine for far less using the same components GM used on the L48 engines (meaning it doesnt have to be forged for high rpms). If its going to see a drag strip, racing or often be pushing 5500+ rpms than a forged internals are more justified but other than strength against internal damage they offer no advantage. In fact forged pistons often require larger ring gaps and can have disadvantages such at piston slap while warming up its kind of a tradeoff. I went with Keith Black heat treated Hypereutectic pistons on my new engine because of cost and the ability to run tighter piston clearances (my block was already machined for this) while still having pistons that are supposedly 30% stronger than normal hyper pistons. Then again the stock dished cast pistons in my original l48 as well as the regular speedpro hypers in my 355 thats been in the car for the last 12 years have never had any issues either..

The biggest bang for the buck would be to just get some smaller chamber (64cc) aluminum heads (to raise compression for better power) and bolt them on with a better flowing exhaust and a mild 218-224 @ 50 duration cam with matching lifters (I agree strongly with rescue Rogers on this) the new lifters are often inferior so you want good ones, in fact I decided that because of that and also the performance advantages from the area under the curve on a roller cam lobe, to upgrade to a "retro roller" camshaft on both my 355 thats in my car now and also the 406 I'm putting together for my car to install this summer.

The new heads, exhaust and cam along with correct timing will really wake the stock engine up and as long as its not worn out you really have no real reason to pull the block from the car.
Theres other things that will transform the car also for example if its an automatic transmission car, a better gear ratio for the rear end like a 3.55 gearset will make the car a lot quicker around town at the cost of higher rpms on the highway (unless you install an overdrive transmission to get the best of both worlds as im doing.)

 

There are 3 steps:

1. Post photos of your car (including engine photos with the air cleaner assembly removed)
2. ???
3. LS Swap!

If you want to keep your SBC for some reason, here's the recipe @Jebbysan sent me when I was considering the same thing. Add some aluminum heads while you are at it.
2101 Performer intake
1204 Fel pro intake gaskets
Comp 262 XE cam and lifter set
Hardened pushrods
Comp Magnum roller tip rockers
Ceramic coated long tube headers
Proper distributor curve

 

Condescending guys like you keep legit new members away.

 

For the thread starter; the forum search function leaves a bit to be desired, but google your question and it will lead you to many posts regarding your horsepower quest.
Always have a realistic goal, including your budget…good luck with your project.

 

I will mention I started with a lunati voodoo 262/268 cam which was supposedly the improved version of the comp 262 xe Harold UD had first designed for comp before he left and went to work for lunati (Before they were all bought up by the same company that now owns edelbrock too) Anyway I digress..

I went from that cam to the comp xr270hr retro roller cam and with no other changes the improvement was noticeable. The only disadvantage is it was finicky if you didnt let it warm up longer but that was mainly due to me using the stock stall converter with a bigger cam. the thing to point out is my engine has flat tops so 10:1 compression... not sure what engine the OP's 76 is running but if its the l82 the 64cc heads will take him there. if its an l48 it has dished pistons so he will get better performance from 62cc or even 58cc heads if he can find them with decent sized valves.

 

My list was specific to my question to @Jebbysan, and was intended to keep a tired L48 on the road for a bit longer, before it could be completely replaced.

Turns out, no L48 is worth keeping on the road, at least not with the stock heads. With better heads, better cam choices are available.

Going down that path, you quickly exceed the cost of an LS Swap, but you retain the ability to swap lifters without pulling the heads, so that is one advantage the SBC has...

 

decent flowing aluminum heads can be bought for as little as $700 new for the pair though.. And its a LOT less labor intensive to swap heads and a cam vs an LS and everything needed in that process. I'm not saying its not a good option. But they each have their strengths and weaknesses.
used heads are often even cheaper... The guy I just bought my 406 from offered to give me a couple cams with it. one was a retro roller 260 RV cam.

 

@Bikespace Your comments are pretty comical.....I know as soon as you read the thread there's going to be an LS swap
I'm sure that instead of old stoves fridges and dryers on your front lawn, there's a pile of SBC's

 

What power could that combo yield?

 

IT depends on the heads and compression...using a stock head will get you nothing...going to a nice AFR, Trick flow or Brodix in the185 area will be around 375 hp, a cheap chinese head and you are looking at 325 to 350 max. IF you jump up to an XE 677 or 678 with 1.6 rockers you will be over 400 hp. You can find a hydraulic lifter in that range as well but you have to deal with lifters floating, sticking or having pump up issues

 

Assuming it is tuned correctly.....about 320hp at the crank....

Jebby

 

That's just not accurate. I help answer a lot of questions on here.
However, no search function is needed here. There are several threads with the exact same question running right now!
It truly is beaten to death.
Yes, most of these mid 70's up Corvette's had rather poor power. So did mine.
Reading through all these threads is NOT the same as tacking onto a 6 year old thread.
It's a Bloody 350 Chevy for F's sake. Getting more out of it is really straightforward. With tons of parts and options available.
A question like, I have X number of dollars I can spend. What is my best bang for the buck would likely be a question that could get the OP the results he's looking for.

 

Ok so he starts asking questions "on someone elses thread" and people get confused and tell him he "really should start his own thread rather than hijack the OP's"... Chances are this is the OP's first SBC 350 vehicle and hes asking to learn.

In truth I understand what your saying but thats just not how it normally goes. Not everyone thinks the same way or uses the forums the same way. On another forum I belong to theres a few guys that will literally start multiple threads asking the same thing because they are so impatient they havent gotten a response in minutes, now thats frustrating..

 

THat happens here to....it used to bother me about the same questions all the time. I either use the search thread and post the results or don't post at all....ive given up on fighting it. I'm sure it's been that way long before I became a member

 

OK guys, point taken. I'll make it a point to be more patient. Seems I answered the same question about 3 times in the last week is all. I have to remember I was new at this once too.

 

About 2 months ago I was saying the same thing.....alls goid!!!

 

Arvox1081
If I had anything between 74-82 I'd just go LS..... and whatever tranny trips your trigger (lots of superwhammerdyne 5 & 6 speed Manuals and superwhammedyne multispeed Automatics)..
I'd be more reluctant to LS a 68-72 but would depending on it's status at the time of evaluation. But really------ WHY NOT just go LS?

Check out this fellow's 1970 LS swap.... there are like 6 episodes. It doesn't seem like he spared many costs but you can decide how much you want to spend where.....